Day 126, Year 2: Life Ashore and Underwater in Sakao
Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Weather: Still Total Cloud Cover But No Rain Today
Location: Sakao Island, Maskelyne Island Group, Vanuatu

After Ranger’s close call with the reef yesterday, we were all very thankful for a quiet night. Once we were sure Ranger’s tie to the mooring was not going to break loose again, we were all a little more at ease, but Mark was still nervous about the size of the line holding us to our mooring. Today, he added a heavier line and now we all feel a little more secure. We have heard reports of very strong southeast winds heading this direction, but we are nicely tucked in here at Sakao. We decided
not to make a move today, but maybe tomorrow.

Mark spent his early morning working on the dinghy engine. When we were in Samoa last year, he and our son Justin had to get into the carburetor to clean it, and that was once again the case today. The carburetor was filthy, so now that it is cleaned, we are hoping that our dinghy engine is once again just fine. Once that task was done, it was time to go into the village here. Ranger picked us up since we still we not sure about the reliability of our dinghy engine, and we went to shore together.
Chief Willie met us once we were ashore. We met his mother and his daughter-in-law and youngest grandchild. We took pictures and talked with them for a bit and then we met one of Willie’s youngest children, Noelin. She is eleven and a most charismatic young woman. She is on holiday from school on the island of Uliveo and she decided to become our guide as we walked on the island. We walked through the village and then on to the end of the island to the medical clinic. It is at the top of a
hill. No one was there, but we could see that it does have minimal provisions. Noelin and her cousin Nika, who is eight, continued to lead us up to the top of a knoll where Dr. Hank lives. He is not on the island right now, but we really enjoyed the view of the islands from his home. We walked back toward the clinic where Noelin and Nika stopped to fill their water containers from the clinic rain water tanks, and then we all headed back to the village. Willie and family had asked if we had 9-volt
batteries, sugar, rice, and flour that we could trade in return for use of the moorings. We promised to return in the afternoon with those items and with copies of some of the pictures we were taking.

We returned to our boats, had lunch, and gathered provisions to take back to the village. Noelin and her cousin Nika, plus Nika’s younger brother, came out to visit in an outrigger. They were very polite and we loved having them aboard as guests. We all went back to shore together. It was great fun distributing the pictures we had taken and visiting with everyone. We learned that Chief Willie’s wife was working on the other side of the island in the garden today so we will hope to meet her tomorrow.
When we returned to the boats, we prepared to go snorkeling. One of the reasons we came here was to give Chief Willie some canvas from Dr, Geoff back in New Zealand, and the other reason was to snorkel in the area here where we had read that the National Geographic tour boats bring its passengers. We snorkeled first in front of the village where we found loads of fish but not such great coral, and then we went in a dinghy across the channel where we found a great little reef. One of the first
things we saw was a beautiful lion fish that Mark was able to photograph. We saw other fish that we had never seen before and lots of small sea fans, just beginning to grow.

We had Paul and Marie over for dinner tonight and we think we might stick around here in the Am, at east long enough to snorkel out on the reef one more tme.

070828 Day 126 Malekula, Vanuatu–Chief Willie’s Village on Sakao

070828 Day 126 Malekula, Vanuatu–Sakao Reef Underwater, Day 1